The 35 mm. filmstrips or slides from which these images are scanned
derive mostly from a stock of more than 30,000 images, as published by the
Bodleian Library over the last forty years or so.

The Library recommends the filmstrips for private study or teaching
purposes, but cannot guarantee that they are of a quality suitable for further
reproduction. Details, including a price-list, can be found at the Western
manuscripts Photographic
Services page.

The captions accompanying the images on this page are taken from
handlists prepared over the decades by a number of staff and volunteers to
accompany the published filmstrips. They are intended to serve here as a guide
to content of the images, but have not been systematically rechecked.

Since most of the images presented here have been scanned from the
Library's stock of existing slides and filmstrips; their quality is not always
up to the highest standards of new photography. Nonetheless, it is hoped that
even the scans from the oldest filmstrips will provide users with a great deal
of further material for visual reference, in a convenient form. Users who
require higher quality images may order photographs in the normal way: see the
Photographic
Services page.

Sometimes two or more thumbnails may show the same subject. Such
apparent duplicates are included for archival purposes: they will derive from
shots of the same item, taken at different times, and may therefore show
differences of lighting, colour contrast and general quality.

Image editing software has been used to 'sharpen' the thumbnail images,
and to reduce the number of colours each thumbnail contains to a maximum of
256; but no manipulation of the larger images has been performed. Users may use
their own imaging software to alter features such as the the brightness,
contrast, or colour-balance of the images, for purposes of private study.

The images were scanned from existing 35 mm. transparencies using a
Nikon LS-2000 slide scanner, at a resolution of 2,700 dpi, in 24-bit colour,
which produces an uncompressed TIFF image file a little under 30MB in size. The
shelfmark, folio reference, and copyright notice were then added to each file
manually using Adobe Photoshop, and saved as an uncompressed TIFF. A batch
process using Photoshop creates the JPEG compressed files.

Note that the apparent quality of the images as viewed on-screen is in
part dependant upon the quality of the monitor used to view them, and the
apparent colour-values are likewise dependant on whether the monitor has been
correctly calibrated, and the ambient lighting conditions of the room.

The JPEG thumbnail images on this page are 200 pixels in length along
their longest side, use no more than 256 colours, and the files are each about
15-20KB in size. Clicking on each of these images will load a larger version,
500 pixels in length.

The larger versions of each image, respectively 500, 1000, and 1500
pixels along the long side, can be viewed by clicking on the 'Small', 'Medium',
and 'Large' links beneath each caption. The images of 500 pixel-length are each
about 50-100 KB in size; the 1000 pixel ones about 200-350 KB, and the 1500
pixel ones are about 500-750 KB. We recommend that users start by selecting the
smaller sizes before attempting to download the larger ones, since the latter
may seem slow to load: this depends on the speed of each user's internet
connection and computer system.